SPEECH 


OP 


Il'ON.  M,  S.  LATIIAM,  OF  CALIFORNIA, 


THE  EIGHTS  OP  NEUTEAES — CUBA. 


DELIVERED 


IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  JUNE  14,  1854. 

1 


WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED  AT  THE  CONGRESSIONAL  GLOBE  OFFICE. 

1354. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


https://archive.org/details/speechofhonmslatOOIath 


SPEECH 


The  House  being  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole 
on  the  state  of  the  Union — 

Mr.  LATHAM  said: 

Mr.  Chairman:  In  the  midst  of  peace  and  gen¬ 
eral  prosperity,  while  commerce  and  agriculture 
are  flourishing,  and  every  species  of  industry 
meeting  its  adequate  reward,  the  apprehensions  of 
the  country  have  been  excited,  anii  our  business 
community  startled  by  various  resolutions  intro¬ 
duced  into  this  Houseand  the  Senate, by  gentlemen 
who  seem  to  have  paid  especial  attention  to  our 
foreign  relations,  and  to  whose  peculiar  keeping 
it  would  seem  an  overruling  Providence  had  con¬ 
fided  the  destinies  of  this  great  Republic! 

While  we  have  been  taught  for  years  past  to 
believe  in  manifest  destiny,  while  historical  events, 
which  we  all  witnessed,  have  contributed  to  cre¬ 
ate  and  strengthen  that  belief,  in  which  the  pres¬ 
ent  generation  is  now  regularly  educated,  we  are 
permitted  to  behold  and  admire  in  this  House  the 
instruments  through  which  God’s  providence  is 
to  work  out  the  problem  of  peopling  and  civilizing 
this  great  continent !  The  men  who  have  received 
this  special  mission  are  before  us,  and  their  inspi¬ 
ration  is  manifest  from  their  high  resolve!  Anti¬ 
cipating  the  future,  and  strong  in  the  consciousness 
of  the  power  to  be  acquired  by  us  within  the  next 
two  or  three  decades,  they  have,  in  a  parliament¬ 
ary  way — the  only  one  left  open  to  their  ambition 
and  patriotism — laid  down  the  principles  which 
ought  to  guide  our  intercourse  with  foreign  na¬ 
tions,  and  the  policy  which  we  ought  to  pursue  at 
this  particular  crisis.  It  is  not  enough  for  the 
people  of  this  country  to  believe  in  a  particular  doc¬ 
trine;  they  must  have  faith  also  in  the  Apostles. 

For  the  present,  our  new  leaders  give  to  their  in- 
irations  the  form  of  inquiries.  Their  modesty — 
eaven’s  choicest  gift,  the  adorning  grace  of  every 
virtue — will  not  even  permit  them  to  make  sugges¬ 
tions;  but  they  prefer  the  more  unpretending,  pop¬ 
ular,  Socratic  method  of  questions  and  answers, 
to  lead  the  benighted  to  understand  the  things  ih^y 
would  teach  them.  And  if  the  Administration  is 
but  half  as  intelligent  and  docile  as  were  the  pupils 
of  the  great  practical  philosopher  of  antiquity,  it 


cannot,  wLu  any  show  of  reason  or  candor,  resist 
the  conclusion  they  would  arrive  at.  There  is 
but  one  drawback  to  this  system  of  instruction, 
which  would  otherwise  be  accompanied  by  the 
most  beneficial  results.  There  are  too  many  teach¬ 
ers,  and  they  slightly  vary  in  the  doctrines  which 
they  seek  to  inculcate.  Each  of  them  seems  to 
have  received  a  special  revelation,  and  each,  there¬ 
fore,  is  anxious  to  establish  a  sect  of  his  own.  It 
is  difficult  for  this  House,  and  the  country,  to  de¬ 
termine  which  is  the  real  orthodox  teacher,  and 
which  the  heresiarch  that  would  make  us  swerve 
from  the  true  faith.  It  is  this  doubt,  sir,  which 
hangs,  not  so  much  over  our  destiny  as  over  the 
men  who  feel  themselves  called  upon  to  guide  it, 
that  puzzles  and  perplexes  me.  1,  too,  am  a  be¬ 
liever  of  manifest  destiny;  but  I  want  that  mani¬ 
festation  to  be  clear  and  explicit.  I  am  not  sat¬ 
isfied  to  see  the  point  I  wish  to  arrive  at;  I  want 
to  see  the  way  that  leads  to  it. 

Let  us  for  a  moment.,  in  consideration  of  this 
question  of  the  rights  op  neutrals,  and  Cuba, 
cast  a  glance  at  the  condition  of  the  country,  and 
the  prospect  of  things  before  us.  We  are  a  free, 
happy,  prosperous  people;  we  have  from  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  our  national  existence  increase!  in 
wealth,  population, and  territory;  and  this  so  stead¬ 
ily,  without  interruption,  that  not  only  ourselves 
but  the  world  believes  in  our  mission.  Under  the 
benign  influence  of  our  institutions,  each  State  of 
our  Federal  galaxy  is  developing  its  gigantic  re¬ 
sources,  while  the  energy  and  enterprise  of  the 
whole  people  is  constantly  employed  in  discover¬ 
ing  new  sources  of  wealth  and  prosperity,  and  new 
scope  for  the  exercise  of  their  varied  faculties. 
We  have  not  only  added  vast  possessions  to  our 
magnificent  domain;  but  we  have  cultivated,  peo¬ 
pled,  and  improved  them  without  diminishing  the 
rapid  development  of  what  was  already  ours  by 
the  labor  and  valor  of  our  ancestors. 

As  a  child  outgrows  its  garments,  we  have  out¬ 
grown  our  ancient  metes  and  bounds,  and  are  even 
now  daily  increasingin  wealth  and  pover.  What 
we  are  too  young  to  do  to-day,  we  are  ripe  for  to¬ 
morrow,  and  will  accomplish,  without  extraordt- 


4 


nary  effort,  the  day  after.  We,  of  all  nations  of 
the  world,  are  best  able  to  bide  our  time.  We 
have  a  continent  before  us,  and  the  future  is  ours 
without  dispute.  The  boy  ten  years  of  age  may 
not  be  equal  to  the  man  of  forty;  but  ten  years 
hence  the  youth  will  be  an  over-match  for  the 
man  of  fifty,  and  twenty  years  hence,  the  man  of 
thirty  will  meet  with  but  a  feeble  resistance  from 
the  sexagenarian.  We  are  in  that  condition,  sir, 
in  the  family  of  nations,  and  can  afford  to  let  the 
years  roll  on  which  bring  its  nearer  to  our  full 
manhood,  and  all  other  nations  whom  we  are  now 
emulating  to  old  age  and  decrepitude.  All  we  re¬ 
quire  is  to  nurse  our  health,  and  to  commit  no 
excesses,  that  we  may  not  be  doomed  to  prema¬ 
ture  old  age. 

Now,  under  these  circumstances,  it  appears  to 
me  that  we  are  not  bound  to  divulge  to  the  world 
what  we  mean  to  do  hereafter,  if  the  world  has 
rot  sagacity  enough  to  know  it,  nor  is  it  prudent 
in  us  to  indulge  in  threats  and  boasts  of  our  forth¬ 
coming  strength.  We  need  not  now  weaken  our 
internal  organization  and  cohesion,  by  developing 
one  set  of  faculties  at  the  expense  of  others,  or  by 
giving  a  particular  direction  to  some  of  our  already 
sufficiently  developed  national  propensities.  The 
harmonious  growth  of  body  and  mind,  of  physical 
and  mental  faculties,  is  what  we  ought  to  aim  at, 
and,  with  a  view  to  that  object,  we  ought  to  avoid 
exposing  ourselves  to  all  those  influences  at  home 
or  abroad,  which  would  give  our  national  develop¬ 
ments  a  one-sided  direction,  and  instill  into  us 
desires  and  passions  which  can  only  be  gratified 
at  the  expense  of  our  better  moral  nature.  And, 
above  all  things  ought  we  to  avoid  those  sophisms 
which  blunt  our  perceptions  of  right  and  wrong, 
and  lend  to  vice  itself  the  color  of  reason  and  justice. 
Sir,  if  we  were  not  as  a  nation  easily  moved  by 
passion,  if,  in  the  gratification  of  our  desires,  we 
were  not  easily  betrayed  into  the  sacrifice  of  our 
own  convictions,  partisan  leaders  would  have  no 
power  over  the  people,  and  heads  of  cliques  would 
find  it  difficult  to  deceive  them  about  their  own 
dearest  interests. 

But  unfortunately  for  the  peace  and  progress 
of  our  country  we  have  too  many  men  among  us, 
whose  prurient  ambition  will  stop  at  nothing,  and 
whose  “  longing  after  immortality”  can  only  be 
satisfied  by  seeing  their  names  in  public  print. 
They  must  be  connected  with  some  startling 
proposition,  with  some  novel  and  striking  theory 
that  shall  wake  up  the  drowsiest  audience  and  fill 
with  surprise  and  expectation  the  most  unsus¬ 
pecting  portion  of  the  public.  It  is  to  achieve  such 
results  that  men  in  high  places  must  tax  their 
ingenuity,  and  if  their  inventive  faculties  are  not 
equal  to  a  new  creation,  they  must  dress  up  some 
old  theory  to  suit  the  taste  and  fashion  of  the 
day.  The  condition  of  the  Old  World  furnishes 
an  inexhaustible  theme  for  exhibiting  their  ver¬ 
satility  of  talent  and  the  indefinite  expansiveness 
of  their  patriotism.  There  never  was  a  chance 
of  going  down  to  posterity  at  so  cheap  a  rate. 
There  are  those  whose  love  of  glory  looks  to  the 
tented  field  for  a  theater  of  action,  “seeking  the 
bubble  reputation,  even  at  the  cannon’s  mouth;” 
but  the  way  to  arrive  at  honor  and  distinction  in 
this  House,  is  “  through  the  native  hue  of  reso¬ 
lutions,  not  “  sickbed  over  with  the  pale  cast  of 
thought.”  These  resolutions  are  now  crowding 
upon  us,  and  must  be  followed  by  action — no 


,  matter  what  may  be  the  consequence.  Two  seta 
of  resolutions  in  regard  to  our  foreign  relations, 
pending  the  present  European  struggle,  have  en¬ 
grossed  the  attention  of  this  body:  one  set  refer- 
I  ring  to  our  rights  (they  say  nothing  of  our  obliga¬ 
tions)  as  neutrals,  the  other  setting  forth  our 
|  claims,  established  to  our  entire  satisfaction,  on 
Cuba.  I  shall  speak  of  them  in  order. 

As  regards  the  rights  of  neutrals,  there  are,  I 
think,  few  thinking  and  reflecting  people  in  this 
country,  certainly  no  commanders  and  mates  of 
vessels,  who  have  not  a  pretty  reasonable  and  just 
conception  of  them.  The  theme  has  become  so 
familiar  to  all  of  us,  and  has  been  so  often,  so  ably, 
and  so  fully  discussed  in  Congress,  and  in  the 
leading  journals  of  the  day,  that  any  further  elab¬ 
oration  of  the  subject,  while  destitute  of  novelty, 
cannot  but  prove  a  severe  trial  to  our  patience. 
The  “rights  of  neutrals”  have  become  household 
words  with  the  American  people,  and  there  is  no 
danger  that,  at  this  hour,  when  every  event  that 
transpires  has  a  special  reference  to  them,  they 
are  likely  to  escape  our  memory. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  we  are  told  by  the  gentle¬ 
man  from  Connecticut,  [Mr.  Ingersoll,]  that  we 
must  act ,  that  we  must  assert  our  rights  in  Con¬ 
gress  and  elsewhere,  that  We  must  let  England 
and  the  world  know  where  we  stand  as  a  nation 
in  regard  to  them.  Allow  me  to  say,  sir,  that 
no  nation  in  the  world  has  given  better  evidence 
than  our  own,  of  its  perfect  understanding  of  the 
rights  of  neutrals,  and  that  no  other  nation  has  im¬ 
pressed  England  or  France  more  thoroughly  of  its 
knowledge  in  that  respect.  Russia  and  the  other 
northern  Powers  have  on  more  than  one  occasion 
|  maintained  an  armed  neutrality,  but  no  other  na- 
I  tion  has  punished  the  infringement  on  the  rights 
:  of  neutrals,  by  an  open  declaration  of  war.  Other 
j  nations  may  have  threatened  war,  in  case  their 
rights  as  neutrals  were  invaded — we  have  waged 
it.  As  our  forefathers  have  revolted,  not  so 
much,  perhaps,  against  actual  oppression  as 
against  the  principles  laid  down  by  Great  Britain, 
for  the  government  of  her  North  American  Colo¬ 
nies;  because  those  principles  contained  the  germ 
of  oppression — taxation  without  representation — 
so  have  the  United  States  drawn  the  sword  to 
sustain  the  rights  of  neutrals,  the  maintenance  of 
which,  at  that  period,  was  far  less  a  matter  of 
policy  than  of  national  honor.  We  are  the  only 
nation  recorded  in  history  which,  in  this  respect, 
has  been  guided  by  principle,  only,  and  which 
has  had  the  courage  and  the  will  to  act  upon  it, 
regardless  of  all  consequences.  Neither  have 
we  done  these  things  merely  in  times  past,  and 
since  relaxed  in  the  practice.  Our  declarations 
and  our  acts  are  fresh  m  the  memory  of  our  con¬ 
temporaries  as  they  are  in  our  own.  Happily 
for  the  United  States,  we  need  not,  to  illustrate 
our  public  men,  go  back  to  past  centuries  or  fab¬ 
ulous  ages.  The  heroes  of  the  Revolution,  and 
of  the  last  war  with  England,  have  not  all  passed 
from  the  stage,  and  are  at  furthest  but  the  fathers 
and  grandfathers  of  the  present  generation.  Their 
words  and  warnings  are  yet  living  things  in  the 
hearts  of  their  children  and  grandchildren;  while 
no  act  has  been  committed  on  our  part  to  im¬ 
pair  the  force  of  their  example,  or  the  respect 
m  which  it  is  held  by  other  nations.  We  are  not 
yet  the  degenerate  offsprings  of  valorous  sires; 
our  heroic  age  is  not  yet  past,  and  we  have  not 


5 


yet  dwindled  down  from  great  actors  on  the  his¬ 
torical  stage,  to  great  talkers,  and  writers,  and 
recapitulators  of  traditionary  virtues.  We  are  still 
what  we  profess  to  be,  and  what  we  have  always 
been,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  and  the  world 
gives  us  credit  for  it.  We  have  acted  up  to  our 
professions,  and  the  world  knows  it.  We  have 
carried  out  the  principles  laid  down  by  our  fore¬ 
fathers,  and  the  world  has  applauded  us.  We  have 
no  occasion  to  say  to  England,  or  France,  or  any 
other  Power,  “  this  you  must  not  do  ” — “  this  we 
will  resent,”  &c.  England,  and  France,  and  other 
nations  have  reason  to  know  that  we  will  not  sub¬ 
mit  patiently  to  any  national  wrong,  that  we  are 
ever  ready  to  avenge  an  insult  offered  to  our 
national  flag.  The  spirit  of  our  people  will  not 
brook  it,  no  party  in  power  can  suffer  a  stain  on 
our  national  honor.  Why,  then,  reaffirm  what  no¬ 
body  doubts?  Why,  give  color  to  the  suspicion 
that  we  have  relaxed  in  the  severity  of  our  char¬ 
acter  as  Americans,  and  now  require  a  stimulus  to 
bring  us  up  to  the  mark  of  former  days?  Why 
iead  any  to  suppose  that  ice  doubt  whether  Eng¬ 
land  and  France  believe  us  still  the  same  we  were 
in  1812? 

i  have  no  fear,  sir,  that  we  have  sunk  in  the 
estimation  of  the  world,  or  that  any  power  on 
earth  doubts  our  determination  or  ability  to  main¬ 
tain  our  rights.  If  we  went  to  war  for  the  rights 
of  neutrals,  when  we  w’ere  but  a  nation  of  twelve 
millions  of  people,  we  will  not  assuredly  shun  it, 
should  similar  provocations  be  offered,  when  our 
numbers  have  more  than  doubled,  and  our  re¬ 
sources  more  than  quintupled.  This  sort  of  cal¬ 
culation  England  can  make  for  herself,  and  her 
statesmen  being  of  the  calculating  order,  are  sure 
to  ponder  on  it.  They  have  seen  nothing  in  the 
Mexican  war  that  looks  like  degeneracy,  nothing 
in  the  Koszta  affair  which  warrants  the  suspicion 
tiiatour  Government  is  not  prompt  in  maintaining 
its  honor  and  dignity,  in  whatever  quarter  of  the 
globe  they  may  be  assailed. 

Have  we  not,  in  1842,  single  handed,  resisted 
the  Quintuple  treaty,  then  about  to  be  concluded 
and  ready  for  the  signature  of  the  representatives 
of  the  five  great  Powers  of  Europe?  Was  not  the 
firm  attitude  of  our  Minister  in  Paris,  General 
Cass,  alone  sufficient  to  break  up  that  conspiracy 
against  our  flag  and  commerce  in  the  form  of  an 
ex  parte  agieement  to  the  right  of  search?  This 
happened  during:  a  period  of  profound  peace  be¬ 
tween  all  European  nations,  just  after  a  reconcilia¬ 
tion  between  England  and  France  on  the  subject 
of  the  Egyptian  question  and  the  bombardment  of 
St.  Jean  d’Acre.  The  United  States  acted  on  this 
occasion  as  became  her  dignity,  and  the  other 
nations  deferred  to  it.  Here  was  an  alliance  be¬ 
tween  England,  France,  Russia,  Prussia,  and 
Austria — the  European  pentarchy  who  have  regu¬ 
lated  the  affairs  of  that  continent  since  1815,  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  the  minor  Powers,  who  were  not 
even  permitted  to  sign  the  peace  of  Paris;  and  yet 
the  United  States,  acting  on  the  principle  which 
had  guided  her  conduct  from  the  day  of  her  na¬ 
tional  independence,  prevailed  against  the  coali¬ 
tion.  She  would  not  allow  Great  Britain  to  con¬ 
stitute  herself  high  constable  of  the  ocean*  She 
insisted  that  every  nation  joining  England  in  this 
unjust  and  unheard  of  enterprise  was  damaging 
her  own  maritime  independence,  and  committing 
an  outrage  on  the  neutral  flag  of  America.  And 


what  did  France  and,  subsequently,  all  the  other 
continental  Powers  of  Europe  do  ?  Did  they  doubt 
that  the  United  States  was  in  earnest?  Did  Eng¬ 
land  suppose  that  the  protest  of  the  American 
Minister  in  Paris  was  a  mere  matter  of  form  ?  Cer¬ 
tainly  not.  France  and  the  other  continental 
Powers  refused  to  ratify  the  Quintuple  treaty,  and 
there  the  matter  dropped ,  to  be  subsequently  made 
a  subject  of  negotiation  between  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  and  that  of  England. 

This,  as  1  have  just  remarked,  was  done  in  the 
midst  of  a  profound  European  peace,  and  the  per¬ 
fect  entente  cordiale  between  England,  France, 
Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria,  without  a  threat 
!  being  used  on  either  side,  and  without  a  resolution 
or  debate  on  the  subject  in  Congress.  The  civil¬ 
ized  world  knew  where  we  stood,  and  there  was 
no  necessity  of  reaffirming  our  positions  by  a  par¬ 
liamentary  act.  England  surrendered  her  preten¬ 
sions,  and  our  national  honor  was  vindicated 
without  having  recourse  to  congressional  elo¬ 
quence. 

Let  us  now  look  to  the  present  condition  of 
Europe.  England  and  France,  to  be  sure,  are  &1- 
!  lies,  impelled  to  alliance  by  a  common  interest, 
and  a  sense  of  common  danger;  but  that  interest 
and  that  alliance  not  extending  beyond  the  East¬ 
ern  question.  They  are  at  war  with  the  gigantic 
power  of  Russia;  England  defending  her  empire 
in  India,  and  France  her  dependencies  in  Africa, 
threatened  by  the  march  of  Russia  on  Constanti¬ 
nople.  They  have  succeeded  in  checking  the  na¬ 
val  power  of  Russia,  but  they  have  not  destroyed 
{  it.  They  may  impede  her  progress  on  land,  and 
;  succeed  in  driving  her  out  of  the  Principalities; 
but  Russia  will  still  remain  a  colossal  Power  which 
cannot  easily  be  attacked  at  home,  and  whose 
rapid  strides  in  civilization  and  strength  cannot  be 
permanently  arrested ;  and  on  whichever  side  vic- 
j  tory  may  incline,  the  peace  that  will  follow  will 
be  a  hollow  one.  The  causes  which  led  to  the 
war,  the  manner  in  which  it  was  conducted,  and 
the  mode  of  its  conclusion,  will  long  be  remem- 
jj  bered,  and  form  a  fruitful  theme  of  diplomatic  in¬ 
trigue  and  national  animosity.  There  need  be  no 
fear  on  our  part  that  the  five  great  Powers  of  Eu¬ 
rope  will  ever  again,  as  a  unit  array  themselves 
against  the  commercial  prosperity — 1  had  almost 
said  supremaaj — of  the  United  States.  There  is 
i  no  danger  of  such  another  crusade  against  our  in- 
j  terest  and  honor  as  that  which  was  so  success¬ 
fully  put  down  by  the  persevering  efforts  of  \i  sin¬ 
gle  man.  Nor  is  it  likely  that  a  partial  effort  will 
be  made  by  Great  Britain  and  France,  or  by 
j;  either  of  these  Powers,  alone  to  attempt  anything 
jj  similar  to  it,  as  long  as  our  Ministers  abroad  and 
the  Administration  at  home  are  doing  their  duty. 

Sir,  if  this  war  between  England,  France,  and 
1  Turkey  on  the  one  side,  and  Russia  on  the  other, 

!  continues  for  any  length  of  time,  good  sense  will 
dictate  such  a  policy  on  the  part  of  the  belligerents 
toward  the  United  States  as  is  not  likely  to  lead 
to  a  serious  misunderstanding  between  us  and 
either  one  or  all  of  them.  In  a  great  struggle  like 
this,  all  parties  to  it  must  exhaust  their  strength, 
and  all  must,  in  consequence,  lose  power;  though 
one  or  the  other  may,  as  a  reward  of  its  endur¬ 
ance,  and  the  price  of  its  valor,  acquire  a  few 
exhausted  and  depopulated  provinces.  It  is  nut 
a  child’s  play  for  the  allied  Powers  to  attack 
I  Russia,  a  country  occupying  a  sixth  part  of  all 


6 


the  land  on  this  globe,  and  whose  area  is  nearly 
three  times  as  large  as  that  of  all  Europe.  The 
Russian  possessions  in  Europe  alone  occupy  one 
half  of  that  continent;  and  her  army,  tried  in  a 
contest  against  the  greatest  captain  of  all  ages,  is 
vigorous,  well  appointed,  disciplined,  and  devoted 
to  the  will  and  fortune  of  a  single  man — the  Em¬ 
peror.  The  Russian  army  is  subsisted^half  the 
expense  of  an  English  or  French  army, composed 
of  equal  numbers  and  arms,  and  it  is  far  more  easily 
recruited  than  the  English.  To  these  advantages 
Russia  yet  joins  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  her  ! 
people,  and  the  singleness  of  direction,  resulting  j 
from  her  autocratic  form  of  government,  which  is 
particularly  favorable  to  military  operations.  The 
allied  Powers,  on  the  other  hand,  are  possessed  of 
mighty  energies.  One  of  them,  France,  is  by  bet- 
great  mobility,  her  facility  of  organization,  and 
her  progress  in  the  exact  sciences,  at  the  head  of 
all  military  nations  of  the  earth;  while  the  other, 
having  dotted  the  globe  with  her  maritime  posses¬ 
sions,  and  subjected  empires  to  her  commerce,  I 
must  still  be  considered  at  the  head  of  the  naval  i 
ones.  Botn  have  filled  the  measure  of  historical 
renown;  both  have  a  glorious  and  chivalrous  past, 
and  its  memory  preserved  in  a  thousand  legends, 
living  in  the  hearts  of  the  people;  each  are  at  the  I 
head  of  great  industrial  developments;  and  both 
are  able  to  bring  the  highest  degree  of  civilization 
to  bear  on  the  gigantic  struggle  to  which  we,  I 
trust,  will  remain  neutral  and  passive  spectators. 
Such  a  war  as  this  is  not  likely  to  be  of  short 
duration,  nor  is  it  probable  that  the  nations  placed 
between  the  mighty  combatants  will  be  able  to 
remain  inactive  while  such  scenes  as  those  the 
news  of  which  are  startling  even  to  us,  at  a  dis¬ 
tance  from  the  theater  of  war,  are  passing  along  Ij 
their  frontiers  and  shores.  I,  for  one,  do  not 
believe  that  Prussia  and  Austria  will  be  able  to 
preserve  their  desired  neutrality,  even  for  the 
purpose  of  offering  their  mediation  after  a  great 
and  decisive  battle.  All  Europe  is  about  to  be 
convulsed,  and  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  any 
European  Power  will  again  seriously  contemplate 
to  circumscribe  our  progress  and  arrest  our  grow¬ 
ing  power. 

The  war  in  Europe,  commenced  for  territorial 1 
aggrandizement,  may,  long  before  its  termination, 
become  one  of  principle.  The  armies,  marshaled 
in  the  field  to  do  battle  for  the  politics  of  Cabinets, 
may  destroy  each  other,  or  become  reduced  and 
exhausted  in  the  progress  of  the  campaign;  and 
the  people,  no  longer  restrained  by  bayonets,  may 
once  more  venture  to  assert  the  rights  of  self-gov¬ 
ernment.  Kings,  Queens,  Sultans,  and  Emperors 
may  figure  during  the  first  act  of  the  great  drama 
about  to  be  performed  on  the  historical  stage;  but 
the  people  may  occupy  the  place  near  the  foot¬ 
lights  in  the  fifth  act,  and  group  the  armies  and 
trophies  of  war  in  the  back  ground.  While  these 
mutations  are  possible,  perhaps  probable,  we,  the 
only  nation  which,  by  wisdom  and  prudence,  and 
justice  to  all,  can  preserve  its  neutrality,  need  not, 
by  congressional  resolutions  or  presidential  dec¬ 
larations,  stipulate  the  conditions  on  which  we 
consent  to  remain  neutral  in  this  fearful  combat. 
We  have  no  new  conditions  to  offer;  no  new  terms 
to  propose.  What  we  ask  is  the  observance  of 
the  law  of  nations,  nothin?  more.  It  would,  no  jj 
doubt,  be  gratifying  to  some  European  Powers  to  !j 
involve  us  in  their  war;  but  it  will  be  the  part  of  Jj 


sound  statesmanship  to  keep  us  out  of  it.  We 
have  no  desire  to  participate  in  its  expenses  and 
vicissitudes,  and  no  business  to  abandon  the  ad¬ 
vantages  of  neutrals  to  share  the  burdens  of  the 
belligerents. 

But  suppose  we  had  fixed  the  conditions  on 
which  we  are  willing  to  remain  neutral  during  the 
present  war  in  Europe,  and  that  England  and 
France,  and  all  other  European  Powers,  were  ready 
to  submit  to  them,  what  would  we  gain  by  it^ 
All  conditions  between  nations  are  from  their  very 
nature  reciprocal;  and  a  young  people  like  our¬ 
selves,  increasing  daily  in  wealth  and  power,  need 
not,  at  the  beginning  of  a  war  which  threatens  to 
be  a  long  and  tedious  one,  and  which  may  change 
the  map  of  Europe,  and  the  condition  of  all  the 
old  continent,  bind  ourselves  down  to  a  particu¬ 
lar  line  of  conduct,  not  obligatory  upon  us  under 
the  law  of  nations.  The  belligerents  may  change 
their  policy  and  tactics;  nations  now  acting  in 
concert  with  others,  may  form  new  combinations, 
and  become  arrayed  against  each  other  on  the 
battle-field;  old  alliances  may  be  severed,  and  new 
ones  formed;  dynasties  may  disappear,  and  be  re¬ 
placed  by  others;  revolutions  may  change  the  ex¬ 
isting  forms  of  government;  during  all  which,  we, 
having  ourselves  great  interests  to  guard  on  this, 
our  own  American  continent,  must  do  nothing, 
either  by  treaty  stipulations  or  otherwise,  that 
shall  prevent  us  from  remaining  masters  of  our  fate. 

The  true,  dignified,  and  prudent  course  for  the 
United  States  to  pursue,  is  not  to  demand  of  Eng¬ 
land,  (of  France  we  need  not  demand  it,  since  she 
has  demanded  it  herself,  and  is  with  us  on  this 
great  question,)  in  a  blustering  way,  by  high- 
sounding — I  had  almost  said  martial  resolutions — 
introduced  into  this  or  the  other  House,  that 
respect  be  paid  to  what  ire  consider  national  law, 
but  to  obtain  from  other  Powers,  and  especially 
from  England,  a  recognition  of  that  law  as  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  abstract  justice,  and  as  a  means  of  protect¬ 
ing  the  commerce  and  shipping  of  all  neutral 
nations.  We  alone  cannot  make  national  !awr. 
We  may  make  demands  on  other  Powers  which 
we  deem  just,  and  are  ready  to  enforce  by  the 
Army  and  Navy  of  the  Republic;  but  we  cannot 
make  laws  for  the  guidance  of  other  nations  with¬ 
out  the  consent  of  those  who  are  to  be  governed  by 
them.  Hence  we  must  negotiate  and  obtain  the 
consent  of  all,  or  the  principal  ones  among  them, 
to  our  proposition.  Now,  I  put  the  question  to 
this  House:  i3  it  proper  to  begin  these  negotia¬ 
tions  by  an  act  or  a  resolution  of  Congress? 
Have  we  any  reason  to  suppose  that  the  matter  is 
neglected  or  forgotten  by  the  Administration,  and 
that  a  resolution  is  necessary,  in  the  nature  of  a 
genfle  hint,  to  make  the  Secretary  of  State  attend 
to  his  duty?  If  so,  we  have  evidence  before  us 
that  it  is  merely  a  work  of  supererogation. 

Copies  of  the  correspondence  which  has  passed 
between  this  Government  and  foreign  Govern¬ 
ments,  upon  the  subject  of  the  rights  of  neutrals, 
and  the  rights  claimed  by  belligerents,  in  the  war 
now  pending  in  Europe,  have  but  recently  been 
submitted  by  the  President  to  this  House.  It  has 
been  read  and  printed,  and  furnishes  ample  proof 
that  the  ship  of  State,  in  this  respect,  is  on  the 
right  track,  and  that  the  Secretary  of  State  under¬ 
stands  his  duty,  and  does  it. 

I  will  read  Governor  Marcy's  letter,  dated  April 
28,  1854,  in  reply  to  a  communication  addressed 


to  him  by  the  Ministers  from  England  and  France 
on  the  subject.  The  Secretary  of  State  says: 

Department  of  State,  ) 
Washington,  April  28, 1853.  ] 

The  undersigned,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States, 
has  had  the  honor  to  receive  the  note  of  Mr.  Crampton,  her 
Britannic  Majesty’s  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister 
Plenipotentiary,  of  the  2lst  instant,  accompanied  by  the 
declaration  of  her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  the  United  king¬ 
dom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  in  regard  to  the  rule 
which  will  for  the  present  be  observed  towards  those  Pow¬ 
ers  with  which  she  is  at  peace,  in  the  existing  war  with 
Russia. 

The  undersigned  has  submitted  those  communications  to 
the  President,  and  received  his  direction  to  express  to  her 
Majesty’s  Government  his  satisfaction  that  the  principle 
that  free  ships  make  free  goods,  which  the  United  States 
have  so  long  and  so  strenuously  con'ended  for  as  a  neutral 
right,  and  in  which  some  of  the  leading  Powers  of  Europe 
have  concurred,  is  to  have  a  qualified  sanction  bv  the  prac¬ 
tical  observance  of  it  in  the  present  war  by  both  Great  Brit¬ 
ain  and  France— two  of  the  most  powerful  nations  of  Eu¬ 
rope. 

Notwithstanding  the  sincere  gratification  which  her  Ma¬ 
jesty’s  declaration  has  eiven  to  the  President,  it  would 
have  been  enhanced  if  the  rule  alluded  to  had  been  an¬ 
nounced  as  one  which  would  be  observed  not  only  in  the 
present,  hut  in  evpry  future  war  in  which  Great  Britain 
shall  be  a  party.  The  unconditional  sanction  of  this  rule 
by  the  British  and  French  Governments,  together  with  the 
practical  observance  of  it  in  the  present  war,  would  cause 
it  to  be  henceforth  recosnized  throughout  the  civilized 
world  as  a  general  principle  of  international  law.  This 
Government,  from  its  very  commencement,  has  labored  for 
its  recognition  as  a  neutral  richt.  It  has  incorporated  it  in 
many  of  its  treaties  with  foreign  Powers.  France,  Russia, 
Prussia,  and  other  nations,  have,  in  various  ways,  fully 
concurred  with  the  United  States  in  regarding  it  as  a  sound 
and  salutary  principle,  in  all  respects  proper  to  be  incorpo¬ 
rated  into  the  law  of  nations.  * 

The  same  consideration  which  has  induced  her  Britan¬ 
nic  Majesty,  in  concurrence  with  the  Empeior  of  the 
French,  to  present  it  as  a  concession  in  the  present  war. 
the  desire  “  to  preserve  the  commerce  of  neutrals  from  all 
unnecessary  obstruction,”  will,  it  is  presumed,  have  equal 
weight  with  the  belligerents  in  any  future  war,  and  satisfy 
them  that  the  claims  of  the  principal  maritime  Powers, 
while  neutral,  to  have  it  recognized  as  a  rule  of  interna¬ 
tional  law,  are  well  founded,  and  should  be  no  longer  con¬ 
tested. 

To  settle  the  principle  that  free  ships  make  free  goods, 
except  articles  contraband  of  war,  and  to  prevent  it  front 
being  called  again  in  question  from  any  quarter,  or  under 
any  circumstances,  the  United  States  are  desirous  to  unite 
with  other  Powers  in  a  declaration  that  it  shall  be  observed 
by  each,  hereafter,  as  a  rule  of  international  law. 

The  exemption  of  the  property  of  neutrals,  not  contra¬ 
band,  from  seizure  and  confiscation  when  ladpn  on  board 
an  enemy’s  vessel,  is  a  right  now  generally  recognized  by 
the  law  of  nations.  The  President  is  pleased  to  perceive, 
from  the  declaration  of  her  Britannic  Majesty,  that  the 
course  to  be  pursued  by  her  cruisers  mill  not  bring  it  into 
question  in  the  present  war. 

The  undersigned  is  directed  by  the  President  to  state  to 
her  Majesty’s  Minister  to  this  Government  that  the  United 
States,  while  claiming  the  full  enjoyment  of  their  rights  as 
a  neutral  Power,  will  observe  the  strictest  neutrality  towards 
each  and  all  the  belligerents.  The  laws  of  this  country  im¬ 
pose  severe  restrictions,  not  only  upon  its  own  citizens,  but 
upon  all  persons  who  may  be  residents  within  any  of  the 
Territories  of  the  United  States,  against  equipping  priva 
teers,  receiving  commission®,  or  enlisting  men  therein,  for 
the  purpose  of  taking  a  part  in  any  foreign  war.  It  is  not  j 
apprehended  that  there  will  be  any  attempt  to  violate  the 
laws;  but  should  the  just  expectation  of  the  President  be 
disappointed,  he  will  not  fail  in  his  duty  to  use  all  the  power  | 
with  which  he  is  invested  to  enforce  obedience  to  them. 
Considerations  of  interest  and  the  obligations  of  duty  alike 
give  assurance  that  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  will 
in  no  way  compmmit  the  neutrality  of  their  country  by  par¬ 
ticipating  in  the  contest  in  which  the  principal  Powers  of 
Europe  are  now  unhappily  engaged. 

The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  this  opportunity  to 
renew,  &c.  VV.  L.  MARCY. 

Now,  it  appears  to  me  that  this  letter  contains 
all  that  can  now  be  prudently  said  in  regard  to 
this  subject.  England  is  made  to  know  that  we 


are  not  satisfied  with  a  “qualified”  sanction  of 
what  we  consider  sound  international  law,  by  a 
practical  observance  of  it  in  the  present  war;  but 
that  we  shall  do  all  in  our  power  to  procure  “  its 
recognition  as  a  rule  of  international  law”  for  all 
subsequent  wars.  We  have  already  incorporated 
the  principle  in  some  of  our  commercial  treaties 
with  the  smaller  maritime  Powers,  and  we  also 
know  that  France  and  Russia  are  with  us  in  this 
great  question  of  “humanity,  civilization,  and 
justice.”  This  is  all  very  satisfactory,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  it  is  gratifying  to  know  that  the 
Secretary  of  State,  in  pressing  the  general  recog- 
!  nition  of  the  rights  of  neutrals,  nowand  forever, 
has  not  forgotten  the  obligation  of  neutrals,  and 
that,  in  that  respect,  his  letter  is  far  more  com¬ 
plete  than  the  resolutions  on  the  subject  introduced 
!  into  Congress. 

Let  us  continue,  through  our  ministers  and 
diplomatic  agents  abroad,  and  through  representa¬ 
tions  made  by  our  Secretary  of  State  to  the  min¬ 
isters  and  representatives  of  foreign  Powers  here 
in  Washington,  to  press  this  important  subject  on 
the  consideration  of  all  maritime  Powers.  They 
have  an  equal  interest  wjth  ourselves  to  stand  up 
for  the  rights  of  neutrals;  for  though  they  may 
not  have  the  same  extended  commerce  and  navi¬ 
gation,  they  are  less  able  than  ourselves  to  protect 
what  share  they  have  of  them,  and  fewer  and  less 
efficient  means  to  make  reprisals.  All  this  must 
necessarily  be  left  to  negotiation;  but  it  becomes 
us  to  take  the  lead  in  the  matter,  and  it  appears, 
from  the  correspondence  just  alluded  to,  that  we 
have  not  been  altogether  unsuccessful.  I  will 
here  quote,  from  that  same  published  correspond¬ 
ence,  an  order  of  council  which  still  further  pre¬ 
scribes  the  manner  in  which  the  conduct  of  the 
British  cruisers  in  regard  to  neutral  vessels  is  to 
be  regulated  during  the  present  war. 

At  the  Court  of  Windsor,  the  15 th  day  of  April,  1854. 

Present,  the  Queen’s  Most  Excellent  Majesty  jn  council. 

Whereas,  her  Majesty  was  graciously  pleased,  on  the 
!  28th  day  of  March  last,  to  issue  her  royal  declaration  in  the 
;  following  terms : 

“  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  the  United  Kingdom  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  having  been  compelled  to  take 
up  arms  in  support  of  an  ally,  is  desirous  of  rendering  the 
war  as  little  onerous  as  possible  to  the  Powers  with  whom 
she  remains  at  peace. 

“To  preserve  the  commerce  of  neutrals  from  all  unne- 
!  cessary  obstruction,  her  Majesty  is  willing,  for  the  present, 
to  waive  a  part  of  the  belligerent  rights  appertaining  to  her 
by  the  law  of  nations. 

“  It  is  impossible  for  her  Majesty  to  forego  the  exercise  of 
her  right  of  seizing  articles  contraband  of  war,  and  of  pre¬ 
venting  neutrals  from  bearing  the  enemy’s  dispatches,  and 
she  must  maintain  the  right  of  a  belligerent  to  prevent 
neutrals  from  breaking  any  effective  blockade  which  may 
be  established  with  an  adequate  force  against  the  enemy’s 
forts,  harbors,  or  coasts. 

“  But  her  Majesty  will  waive  the  right  of  seizing  ene¬ 
mies’  property  laden  on  board  a  neutral  vessel,  unless  it  be 
contraband  of  war. 

“  It  is  not  her  Majesty’s  intention  to  claim  the  confisca¬ 
tion  of  neutral  property,  not  being  contraband  of  war,  found 
on  board  enemies’  ships;  and  her  Majesty  further  declares 
that,  being  anxious  to  lessen  as  much  as  possible  the  evil* 
l  of  war,  and  to  restrict  its  operations  to  the  regularly  organ- 
[  ized  forces  of  the  country,  it  is  not  her  present  intention  to 
issue  letters  of  marque  for  the  commissioning  of  priva¬ 
teers.” 

Now ,  it  is  this  day  ordered,  by  and  with  the  advice  of  her 
privy  council,  that  all  vessels  under  a  neutral  or  friendly 
flag,  being  neutral  or  friendly  property,  shall  be  permitted 
to  import  into  any  port  or  place  in  her  Majesty's  dominions 
all  goods  and  merchandise  whatsoever ,  to  whomsoever  the 
same  may  belong;  and  to  export  from  any  port  or  place  to 
her  Majesty's  dominions  to  any  port,  not  blockaded,  any 
cargo  or  goods  not  being  contraband  of  war ,  or  not  requir 


ing  a  special  permission ,  to  whomsoever  the  same  may  be¬ 
long. 

And  her  Majesty  is  further  pleased ,  by  and  with  the  ad¬ 
vice  of  her  privy  council,  to  order,  and  it  is  hereby  further 
ordered,  that,  save  and  except  only  as  aforesaid,  all  the 
subjects  of  her  Majesty  and  the  subjects  or  citizens  of  any 
neutral  or  friendly  State  shall  and  may,  during  and  not- 
withstanding  the  present  hostilities  with  Russia,  freely  trade 
with  all  ports  and  places,  wheresoever  situate,  which  shall 
not  be  in  a  state  of  blockade,  save  and  except  that  no  British 
vessel  shall,  under  any  cii  cumstances  whatsoever ,  either  un¬ 
der  or  by  virtue  of  this  order  or  otherwise,  be  permitted  or 
empowered  to  enter  or  communicate  with  any  port  or  place 
which  shall  belong  to,  or  be  in  the  possession  or  occupation  of , 
her  Majesty’s  enemies. 

And  the  right  honorable  the  lords  commissioners  of  her 
Majesty’s  treasury,  the  lords  commissioners  of  the  admi¬ 
ralty,  the  lord  warden  of  the  cinque  ports,  and  her  Majesty’s 
principal  secretary  of  State  for  war  and  the  colonies,  are 
to  give  the  necessary  directions  herein  as  to  them  may  re¬ 
spectively  appertain. 

C.  C.  GREVILLE. 

This,  I  take  it,  is  tolerably  satisfactory  for  the 
present,  and  exhibits  no  failure  on  our  part  to 
excite  the  British  Government  to  action.  Let  us 
continue  our  watchfulness  and  our  adhesion  to  a 
fixed  principle.  Let  us  take  advantage  of  every 
favorable  opportunity  which  presents  itself,  and 
of  the  successive  changes  that  the  war  itself  may 
produce,  to  urge  our  claims,  and  those  of  all  other 
maritime  Powers;  and  it  will  soon  be  the  part  of 
wisdom,  as  it  is  eminently  that  of  justice,  for 
England  to  yield  to  the  enlightened  opinion  of  the 
world,  by  recognizing  as  a  permanent,  interna¬ 
tional  law,  what  she  declares  will  be  her  rule  of 
action  during  the  present  European  war. 

But  there  is  yet  another  species  of  resolutions, 
introduced  into  this  and  the  other  House,  refer¬ 
ring  not  so  much  to  our  rights,  as  to  the  privileges 
of  neutrals,  as  they  and  their  followers  understand 
them.  They  squint  toward  our  throwing  off  the 
responsibility  of  neutrals,  without  assuming  any 
definite  responsibility  for  such  an  act.  We  have 
resolutions,  introduced  into  the  other  House,  con¬ 
templating  the  temporary  suspension  of  our  neu¬ 
trality  laws,  and  others  in  this  House,  if  not  of 
a  similar  character,  at  least  contemplating  similar 
results.  These  resolutions  refer  to  matters  and 
things  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  particularly  to 
Cuba.  I  admit,  sir,  that  our  relations  with  Spain, 
growing  out  of  that  island,  are  of  an  extremely 
delicate  nature;  that  the  fate  of  that  island,  its 
misgovernment,  its  proximity  to  our  shores,  and 
the  particular  institutions  established  upon  it,  are 
of  vast  importance  to  the  peace  and  security  of 
this  country;  and  that  the  utmost  vigilance  in 
regard  to  it  is  not  only  demanded  by  prudence, 
but  an  act  of  imperative  duty  on  the  part  of  our 
Government.  The  Island  of  Cuba  commands, 
in  a  measure,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  in  case 
of  a  maritime  war,  in  which  the  United  States 
may  be  engaged,  its  possession  by  the  enemy 
might  become  a  source  of  infinite  annoyance  to 
us,  crippling  our  shipping,  threatening  the  great 
emporium  of  our  southern  commerce,  and  expos¬ 
ing  our  whole  southern  coast,  from  the  Capes  of 
Florida  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande,  to  the 
enemy’s  cruisers.  The  geographical  position  of 
Cuba  is  such  that  we  cannot,  without  a  total  dis¬ 
regard  of  our  own  safety,  permit  it  to  pass  into 
the  hands  of  any  first  class  Power;  nay,  that  it 
would  be  extremely  imprudent  to  allow  it  to  pass 
even  into  the  hands  of  a  Power  of  the  second  rank, 
possessed  of  energy  and  capacity  for  expansion. 
We  know  what  Holland  has  done  with  the  island 


of  Java,  and  we  have  no  idea  of  allowing  any 
European  nation  to  colonize  Cuba  after  the  man¬ 
ner  of  the  Dutch.  We  cannot  allow  any  nation 
but  Spain  to  hold  the  island;  and  it  is,  perhaps, 
fortunate  for  our  youthful  advancement  that  Spain 
is  a  descending  Power.  Spain  is  not  capable  of 
developing  the  vast  resources  of  Cuba,  nor  has 
she  the  ability  and  strength  to  take  advantage,  iiu 
a  military  point  of  view,  of  its  geographical  posi¬ 
tion.  Spanish  power  has  everywhere  been  driven, 
even  from  this  continent,  by  her  own  feeble,  half- 
breed  colonists.  It  was  bought  and  sold  by  the 
jl  French,  and  expelled,  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet, 
from  its  last  foot-hold  on  the  territory  now  occu¬ 
pied  by  the  United  States.  It  was  obliged  to  seek 
M  refuge  in  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  whither 
Mexico  and  the  South  American  States,  for  the 
want  of  competent  naval  forces,  could  not  pursue 
it,  and  where  it  has  vegetated  ever  since,  more  in- 
jl  debted  for  its  security  to  the  tolerance  of  other 
Powers,  than  to  any  inherent  strength  and  cohe¬ 
sion  of  her  own. 

Spanish  power  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  has  only 
had  a  nominal  existence.  It  cannot  grow  and  ex- 
pand  while  the  mother  country  is  declining  in  in¬ 
fluence  and  power,  and  while  the  United  States 
are  constantly  increasing  in  territory  and  popula¬ 
tion.  Cuba  is  a  mere  Spanish  farm,  badly  worked 
by  tenants  for  its  lazy  and  thriftless  proprietors. 
It  must,  in  due  time,  come  under  the  hammer, 
and  there  is  no  party  which  can  afford  to  pay  as 
i  high  a  price  for  it  as  ourselves.  In  case  of  sale, 
we  shall  certainly  be  the  most  liberal  purchaser, 
and  pay  enough  for  it  to  discharge  all  the  mort¬ 
gages  and  every  other  species  of  claim  upon  the 
estate.  At  the  same  time  we  cannot  allo-w  it  to 
pass  from  its  present  proprietors  into  other  hands. 
We  certainly  cannot  allow  any  one  else  to  bid  for 
it;  and,  in  case  of  accident  or  death  of  the  present 
holder,  would  feel  ourselves  called  upon  to  adminis¬ 
ter  upon  the  estate.  But  we  have  no  desire  to  take 
forcible  possession  of  it,  by  expelling  the  present 
owner,  as  long  as  we  can  live  in  peace  with  him; 
in  other  words,  so  long  as  we  can  preserve  neigh¬ 
borly  relations  with  him  without  inconvenience 
and  injury  to  our  property.  Let  Spain  make  the 
most  of  the  island — let  her  derive  as  large  a  revenue 
from  it  as  she  pleases,  and  let  her  dispose  of  that 
revenue  as  she  pleases,  we  have  no  right  or  dispo¬ 
sition  to  meddle  with  it;  but  if  she  choose  to  lay 
it  waste,  because  she  thinks  we  desire  its  acquisi¬ 
tion,  or  makes  a  nuisance  of  it  to  spite  us,  then  let 
us  give  her  warning  that  we  will  not  submit  to 
so  barbarous  a  course,  and  that,  in  case  she 
persists  in  it,  we  will  forcibly  enter  upon  the 
farm  and  abate  the  nuisance.  In  doing  this  in 
a  quiet,  orderly,  direct  way,  without  noise  or 
bluster,  we  shall  preserve  our  own  self-respect, 
and  be  justified  in  the  eyes  of  the  civilized  world. 
Having  gone  thus  far,  I  would  state  that  the  pos¬ 
session  of  Cuba  is  desirable.  It  would  make  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  almost  a  mare  clausum,  protect 
the  mouths  of  our  western  rivers,  and  add  to  the 
security  of  property  of  all  the  gulf  States,  while 
it  would  increase  our  wealth,  our  agricultural  pro¬ 
ducts,  our  shipping  and  commerce.  1  am  further 
willing  to  admit  that  it  would  add  to  our  political 
•  equilibrium  at  home;  that  it  would  quiet  the  fears 
and  apprehensions  of  the  minority,  and  thereby 
abate  the  sectional  jealousies  which  threaten  to 
become  the  bane  of  our  Confederacy.  It  would 


9 


l| 

so  increase  our  internal  commerce,  and  so  augment  j 
the  intercourse  between  citizens  and  business  men  i 
of  different  States,  that  it  would  not  only  stimulate 
production,  but  promote  good  feeling  and  establish 
friendly  relations  between  people  now  animated 
by  sectional  animosities.  It  would  give  to  our 
coasting  trade  an  impetus  which  would  immensely 
add  to  our  tonnage,  while  it  would  cheapen  the 
production  of  the  great  staples  necessary  to  life; 
thereby  adding  to  the  comfort  and  well-being  of 
our  laboring  classes,  and  increasing  the  rewards 
of  their  industry.  In  a  national  point  of  view, 
the  possession  of  Cuba  would  easily  add  to  our 
exports  and  imports;  while,  at  the  same  time,  it 
would  give  assurance  to  the  world  that  our  mis¬ 
sion  is  peace  and  labor,  which  the  people  of  all 
nations  are  invited  to  share  w'ith  us,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  we  are  ever  ready,  under  liberal  com¬ 
mercial  laws,  to  exchange  our  products  for  those 
of  other  countries.  You  will  judge  from  these 
remarks,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  1  am  a  Cuban  an¬ 
nexationist — sub  modo. 

But,  sir,  it  is  not  only  the  geographical  position 
and  productiveness  of  the  island,  but  the  manner 
of  its  acquisition,  which  will  determine  its  value  to 
us  nowand  hereafter.  If  the  island  is  purchased, 
and  comes  to  us  peaceably,  it  will  be  a  blessing  to 
us,  and  form  in  due  time  one  (perhaps  more)  of  j 
the  richest  and  most  prosperous  States  of  th e  ;  j 
Union.  The  population  of  the  island  will  in  a  few 
years  be  doubled,  perhaps  tripled,  and  its  staples  jj 
quintupled.  'We  shall  have  sugar  and  tobacco, 
perhaps  coffee,  for  exports,  and  all  other  products  | 
desirable  for  our  own  use.  Havana  will  become 
a  great  world-emporium  of  commerce,  commer¬ 
cial  towns  will  spring  up  all  over  the  island,  and 
our  new  coasting  trade  would  afford  new  scope 
for  enterprise  and  become  a  new  school  for  the 
education  and  discipline  of  our  hardy  mariners. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  the  island  is  conquered  from 
Spain  in  an  unjust  war,  or  a  war  waged  on  slight 
and  insufficient  provocation,  then  we  may  expect, 
from  the  ferocity  which  has  signalized  all  Spanish 
wars — especially  when  they  partook  of  the  nature 
of  revolution — that  Spain  will  seek  to  destroy  the 
value  of  the  island  by  a  violent  change  in  its  social  j 
institutions,  which  may  destroy  its  productive¬ 
ness.  Spain  will  act  the  desperado,  and  be  re¬ 
venged  for  her  loss.  Unable  to  defend  the  island 
against  a  superior  force,  she  may,  resolve  as  a  last 
resort,  to  emancipate  the  African  slaves  to  punish 
the  disloyalty  of  the  Creoles,  who  would  annex 
the  island  to  the  United  States,  and  render  the  ac¬ 
quisition  to  us  a  source  of  vexation  and  trouble. 
And  although  England  and  France  might  not  pub¬ 
licly  approve  of  such  an  act,  yet  it  would  clearly 
meet  the  views  of  those  Governments,  which  for 
the  last  ten  years  have  sought  by  every  possible 
means  to  circumscribe  our  power  on  this  conti¬ 
nent.  Official  England  and  France  might  even 
advise  such  a  course,  though  they  might  be  pru¬ 
dent  enough  not  to  avow  it. 

If  the  Government  of  Spain  were  resolved  on  so 
inhuman  and  suicidal  a  course,  it  would,  indeed, 
entail  no  small  calamity  on  us.  If  the  seven  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  slaves  on  the  island  of  Cuba  are 
once  emancipated,  then,  we  are  warned  by  recent 
proceedings,  the  people  of  this  country  will  be 
divided  as  regards  the  proper  course  to  be  pursued 
by  our  Government;  and  the  domestic  troubles 
that  may  ensue  will  in  no  small  degree  harass  j, 


and  perplex  our  foreign  relations,  perhaps  our 
plans  of  operation.  Fanaticism,  in  all  ages,  has 
been  the  bane  of  humanity;  and  we  need  not 
cherish  the  delusive  hope  that  the  world  will  ever 
wholly  be  governed  by  reason  and  justice.  If 
Spain  alone,  or  aided,  directly  or  indirectly,  by 
England  or  France,  should  succeed  in  abolishing 
slavery  in  the  island  of  Cuba,  and  we  should  ac¬ 
quire  it  subsequent  to  that  act,  it  will  require  a 
considerable  military  force  to  protect  the  lives  of 
the  white  inhabitants,  and  a  large  expenditure  of 
blood  and  treasure  to  reinstate  them  in  their  pos¬ 
sessions.  Then  will  arise  the  question  whether 
the  reintroduction  of  slavery  into  Cuba  can  be  ef¬ 
fected  without  giving  rise  to  one  of  those  terrible 
sectional  struggles  which  experience  has  taught  us 
to  avoid,  if  it  is  possible  to  do  so  without  abandon¬ 
ing  principles  essential  to  the  maintenance  cf  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union.  The  experience  of 
the  past  warrants,  indeed,  the  conclusion  that  the 
national  men  would  triumph  over  all  obstacles, 
and  that  our  mission  as  a  people  would  be  ful¬ 
filled;  but  the  practical  question  for  a  statesman 
is,  whether  the  same  result  might  not  have  been 
obtained  in  a  manner  much  more  direct,  and  far 
less  expensive,  and  without  renewing  the  sectional 
agitation  of  questions  threatening  our  domestic 
peace  and  the  prosperity  of  our  institutions. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  can  imagine  the  case  in  which, 
even  with  all  these  fearful  contingencies  attached 
to  it,  I  would  still  advocate  the  annexation  of 
Cuba;  but  I  would  certainly  try  other  means  more 
congenial  with  the  feelings  of  the  American  people 
to  attain  the  same  object.  1  would  not  resort  to 
force  till  all  peaceable  means  are  exhausted,  and 
then  I  should  only  have  recourse  to  force  after 
being  fully  prepared  to  do  so,  and  without  leaving 
to  Spain  or  any  other  Power  the  faintest  hope  of 
a  protracted  struggle.  Success  should  not  only 
be  probable,  it  should  be  certain ;  and  that  not  only 
in  the  end,  but  at  the  very  outset.  It  is  not  my 
business  here  to  enter  into  details  to  show  that, 
in  the  present  state  of  our  Army  and  Navy,  it 
would  be  rash,  to  use  no  stronger  term,  to  ex¬ 
pose  our  martial  reputation  to  the  chances  and 
casualties  of  a  war  with  a  second-rate  power;  that 
it  would  be  fatal  to  the  prestige  we  have  acquired 
during  the  brief  period  of  our  national  existence, 
if  obliged  to  declare  war  against  Spain,  for  the 
possession  of  the  Island  of  Cuba,  our  military 
and  naval  operations  against  the  island  were  to 
meet  with  a  check,  and  our  forces  were  to  be  re¬ 
pulsed.  With  the  laurels  of  the  Mexican  war 
yet  fresh  on  our  brow,  the  smallest  temporary 
success  of  Spain  would  spread  a  gloom  over  the 
land,  from  the  effects  of  which  no  subsequent  suc¬ 
cess,  however  brilliantand  complete,  could  entirely 
save  us.  The  very  fact,  that  we  might  be  obliged 
to  employ  all  our  disposable  means  to  coerce  Spain 
into  a  recognition  of  an  unavoidable  conclusion 
would  be  fatal  to  our  national  dignity,  while  it 
would  lend  a  certain  dignity,  bordering  on  heroism, 
to  her  protracted  resistance.  What  if  this  giant 
Confederacy,  the  ocean-bound  Republic  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  were  to  be  for  months  engaged 
in  subduing  the  island?  What  if  England  or 
France;  or  any  Power,  profiting  by  this  delay, 
were  to  offer  its  mediation;  in  other  words,’ pre¬ 
sume  to  impertinently  interfere  in  this  quarrel? 

Sir,  when  we  strike  a  blow  for  Cuba,  it  must 
be  but  one,  and  when  it  is  struck,  Cuba  must  be 


10 


irretrievably  ours;  it  must  be  an  “accomplished 
fact,”  and,  as  such,  invite  no  interference  on  the 
part  of  other  nations.  This  cannot  be  done  by 
noisy  and  wordy  diplomacy,  or  by  resolutions 
in  Congress  which  give  the  world  warning  of 
our  intentions,  our  hopes,  and  prospects,  and  the 
pith  and  substance  of  our  foreign  policy.  Nor 
can  it  be  accomplished  by  long  and  formidable 
discussions  in  this  or  the  other  House,  by  an 
attitude  of  defiance  assumed  by  members  or  Sen¬ 
ators,  or  by  a  display  of  patriotic  eloquence 
whose  thunder  it  is  perhaps  calculated  shall  shake 
the  foundation  of  Moro  Castle.  These  speeches 
may  do  a  great  deal  of  harm;  but  they  can  do  no 
good.  They  do  harm  by  revealing  our  position 
to  those  who  are  opposed  to  us,  and  by  exciting 
our  own  people  to  acts  of  lawless  violence,  de¬ 
structive  to  themselves,  and  disreputable  to  us  as 
a  nation.  Sir,  the  power  to  make  war  is  one  of 
the  highest  attributes  of  sovereignty,  which  can¬ 
not  be  usurped  by  any  body  of  men  within  the 
State;  it  belongs  to  the  collective  power  of  the 
Government,  and  a  usurpation  of  it,  even  by  a 
sovereign  State  of  this  Union,  would  be  a  revolu¬ 
tion  and  an  act  of  treason  to  the  Confederacy. 
Prom  these  remarks  you  may  infer,  sir,  that, 
though  a  “  Cuban  annexationist”  sub  modo,  I  am 
opposed  to  fillibusterism  in  toto. 

England  pursued  a  different  course  in  India, 
which  she  conquered,  not  by  resolutions  in  Par¬ 
liament,  but  by  hard  fighting,  silent  diplomacy, 
skillful  management,  and,  alas  !  but  too  often  by 
bribery  and  treachery.  But  not  a  single  province 
was  added  to  the  British  Empire  in  Asia  by  par¬ 
liamentary  heroism;  though  there  were,  at  all 
times,  naval  and  military  officers  enough  in  the 
British  Parliament  to  have  furnished  an  apology 
for  such  an  act.  For  upwards  of  sixty  years 
England  meditated  an  attack  on  China,  but  pa¬ 
tiently  waited  for  a  fit  occasion  to  do  so.  One 
administration  bequeathed  its  resolve  to  another, 
until  an  opportunity  presented  itself  to  strike  the 
first  blow  with  effect.  This  done,  she  did  not 
immediately  turn  her  fleet  and  her  army  toward 
Japan,  and  compel  that  country  to  open  her  ports 
at  once  to  British  commerce.  She  left  that  wisely 
to  the  United  States,  and,  in  the  mean  time  forti¬ 
fied  and  established  herself  at  Hong  Kong.  She 
courted  no  diplomatic  failure,  and  waited  for  the 
return  of  appetite  before  setting  out  for  a  fresh 
conquest. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  by  the  Con¬ 
stitution,  has  the  initiative  in  all  matters  belong¬ 
ing  to  our  foreign  relations,  and  it  is  necessary 
that  it  should  be  so.  It  is  he  who  selects  his  Cab¬ 
inet  ministers,  and  who  appoints  our  diplomatic 
agents  abroad.  Foreign  ministers  and  diplomatic 
agents  confer  with  him  and  the  Secretary  of  State 
on  all  matters  concerning  their  respective  Govern¬ 
ments,  and  there  is  no  other  way  of  making  prop¬ 
ositions  to  foreign  Governments,  or  of  receiving 
propositions  from  them  except  through  the  me¬ 
dium  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  the 
agents  and  ministers  of  his  choice. 

Resolutions  may  be  introduced  into  Congress 
for  the  purpose  of  attacking  or  defendingthe  Ad¬ 
ministration,  or  with  a  view  to  stimulate  public 
opinion,  by  a  sort  of  rhetorical  fillibusterism,  as 
1  have  already  remarked;  but  it  cannot  coerce  the 
Administration  into  the  adoption  of  a  course 
which  it  deems  unwise  or  inexpedient  at  a  par¬ 


I 


I 


I 


ticular  time.  As  a  general  rule,  these  resolu¬ 
tions  can  only  embarrass  negotiations,  and  ren¬ 
der  the  position  of  our  diplomatic  agents  abroad 
more  difficult  than  before.  They  seldom  leave 
sufficient  margin  for  their  discretion,  and  render 
diplomacy  either  entirely  impossible  or  superflu¬ 
ous;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  accomplish 
nothing.  Supposing  the  President  and  his  Cabi¬ 
net,  from  all  the  information  at  their  command, 
judge  that  the  time  for  action  has  not  yet  arrived, 
what,  then,  can  possibly  be  the  effect  of  a  reso¬ 
lution  introduced  into  this  House,  urging  him 
to  act,  except  to  establish  an  antagonism  between 
the  Administration  and  Congress,  that  exposes 
our  weakness  to  foreign  powers,  arid  our  wantof 
harmony  to  the  opposition  at  home?  But  sup¬ 
pose  the  resolutions  conform  to  the  views  and  ob¬ 
jects  of  the  Administration,  what  good  can  they 
do  it?  In  what  respect  will  they  render  its  acts 
more  prompt,  stead y,  and  effective?  Sir,  these 
resolutions  are  not  intended  to  affect  parties  abroad; 
they  are  intended  to  influence  parties  at  home,  and 
must  necessarily  fail  of  every  other  object.  If 
some  distinguished  statesman ,  known  and  respect¬ 
ed  at  home  and  abroad — a  man  of  wide-spread 
reputation  for  ability  and  experience — were  to  in¬ 
troduce  them,  they  might  have  some  weight  with 
European  statesmen,  carrying  with  them  the  as¬ 
sent  and  approbation  of  the  American  people;  but 
if  it  were  to  appear,  or  be  suspected,  that  these 
resolutions  were  introduced  merely  to  afford  mem¬ 
bers  an  opportunity  of  talking  about  our  foreign 
affairs  to  Buncombe,  then  it  is  clear  that  no  at¬ 
tention  would  be  paid  to  them  abroad,  and  that 
they  could  only  lessen  the  dignity  and  importance 
which  would  otherwise  attach  to  propositions 
made  to  foreign  Powers,  in  the  regular  diplomatic 
way,  by  the  responsible  agents  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  Congress  cannot  compel  the  Executive  to 
make  war,  if  the  latter  is  un  willingto  do  it;  nor  can 
it  compel  him  to  make  peace,  except  by  refusing 
the  supplies  for  the  Army  and  Navy.  When 
Congress  shall  judge  that  the  President  has  done 
wrong,  or  that  he  neglects  his  duty  to  the  coun¬ 
try,  then  the  Constitution  prescribes  the  mode  of 
impeaching  him.  I  know  no  other  official  act  by 
which  Congress  may  interfere  with  the  foreign 
policy  of  the  Administration.  This  House  is  not 
even  invested  with  the  ratifying  power,  bestowed, 
from  wise  considerations,  on  the  Senate;  it  merely 
cooperates  with  the  other  branches  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  in  the  execution  of  treaties  which  it  hag 
no  power  to  originate.  It  is  necessary  for  th® 
preservation  of  our  institutions  that  the  powers 
vested  in  the  different  branches  of  our  Govern¬ 
ment  should  be  kept  separate  and  distinct,  and 
that  neither  branch  should  assume  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  the  other.  That  is  the  only 
way  which  they  are  sure  to  move  in  harmony 
with  each  other,  and  yet  preserve  that  mutual  in¬ 
dependence  of  each  other  which  is  of  the  essence 
of  republican  government,  and  insures  the  greatest 
amount  of  efficiency. 

But  it  is  said,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  we  are  im¬ 
pelled  to  these  things  by  “  manifest  destiny,” 
and  I  more  than  half  believe  it.  I  believe  there 
are  men  who,  watching  the  current  of  popular 
opinion,  are  willing  to  be  borne  along  by  its 
waves,  and  called  “  leaders while  there  are 
others  who  have  not  the  courage  to  resist  it,  even 
if  the  current  were  to  carry  them  ovei  a  precipice. 


11 


These  men,  whoever  they  may  be,  and  whatever 
station  they  may  occupy,  can  lay  no  claims  to 
statesmanship;  they  are  mere  jobbers  and  jour¬ 
neymen  politicians.  Men  of  great  mind  and 
character  impress  their  thoughts  on  the  age  in 
which  they  live;  but  our  political  jobbers  bear  the 
imprint  of  the  popular  passion  of  the  hour,  and 
follow  the  age  in  whatever  folly  may  be  upper¬ 
most  at  the  time.  Sir,  destiny  is  nothing  but  the 
final  result  of  all  the  tendencies  of  our  moral  and 
physical  system;  it  is  the  effect  of  the  laws  of  na¬ 
ture,  whose  operations,  whenever  they  are  most 
beneficent,  are  silent  and  secret,  not  boisterous 
and  noisy,  by  fits  and  starts. 

Sir,  we  have,  no  doubt,  a  proud  mission  to  ful¬ 
fill;  but  it  does  not  merely  consist  in  the  acquisi¬ 
tion  of  territory,  and  in  the  extension  of  power. 
Our  calling  is  a  far  nobler  one.  W e  must  cultivate, 
fertilize,  regenerate  the  regions  which  become 
subject  to  our  rule.  It  is  not  merely  power,  but 
our  institutions  and  laws,  and  our  higher  civiliza¬ 
tion  which  we  are  bound,  in  the  course  of  time, 
to  carry  to  the  most  remote  part  of  this  continent 
and  to  its  neighboring  islands.  Unless  we  can 
regenerate  and  Americanize  what  we  acquire  or 
annex,  we  shall  not  improve  on  former  conquer¬ 
ors,  but  only  add  another  page  to  the  long  cata¬ 
logue  of  national  crime  in  the  world’s  history. 
Now,  it  appears  to  me  that  our  Federal  institutions 
are  admirably  calculated  to  promote  the  gradual 
process  of  assimilation,  and  to  render  that  homo¬ 
geneous  for  all  practical  purposes  of  government, 
which,  from  its  foreign  origin  and  other  local 
onuses,  would  forever  remain  separateand  distinct, 
and,  on  that  account  incapable  of  producing  great 
results.  Our  true  expansive  power  consists  in 
this  power  of  assimilation.  We  do  not  conquer 
and  coerce;  we  attract,  assimilate,  reorganize. 
The  former  is  never  accomplished  without  con¬ 
suming  power,  and  thereby  producing  w  aste;  the 
latter  is  a  natural  process,  combining  elements  for 
a  new  and  higher  purpose,  and  adding  to  the 
strength  of  all  by  giving  them  unity  of  direction. 

There  are  three  great  nations  in  the  history  of 
the  world  who,  thus  far,  have  had  the  greatest  in¬ 
fluence  on  the  destiny  of  mankind.  They  are  the 
Homans,  the  English,  and  the  Americans.  The 
genius  of  Greece  was  only  permitted  to  theorize 
and  speculate;  the  Romans,  who  came  afterthem, 
were  the  first  to  cultivate  practical  statesmanship, 
and  establish  real  power.  But  the  expansion  of 
Rome  was  based  on  her  military  prowess,  and 
acknowledged  no  reciprocal  duties  of  humanity 
between  the  conquerors  and  theconquered.  The 
defenselessness  of  the  vanquished  and  the  virtus 
militaris  of  the  Roman  citizen  constituted  all  her 
claims  to  dominion  and  government.  Rome  ruled 
the  world,  but  her  sway  extended  no  further  than 
the  march  of  her  eagled  legions.  Rome  plundered 
the  world ,  and  devastated  empires  to  enrich  her 
people,  yet,  after  all,  enriched  but  a  few  families. 
Rome  ruled  by  the  sword  alone;  the  greatest  Ro¬ 
man  public  writer,  Cicero,  acknowledged  no  bind¬ 
ing  obligations  between  nations  in  the  form  of 
public  law.  With  such  a  people  at  the  head  of 
the  progressive  movement,  the  world  could  only 
be  d  ivided  between  masters  and  slaves. 

England  added  a  vast  industrial  influence  to  her 
march  of  martial  power.  She  conquered  and  colo¬ 
nized  both,  and  planted,  wherever  a  homogeneous 
population  admitted  of  it,  the  seed  of  self-govern¬ 


ment  through  representative  forms.  Rome  had 
the  power  to  constrain;  England  added  to  it  the 
faculty  to  reconstruct.  In  this  consists,  indeed, 
as  Edmund  Burke  justly  remarked,  the  “  undying 
glory  of  England .  ”  W  heresoever  a  people  speak¬ 
ing  the  English  tongue  have  gone  to  settle,  con¬ 
stitutional  forms  of  government  have  sprung  up, 
which,  in  due  course  of  time,  must  ripen  into  re¬ 
publicanism.  Our  own  developments,  our  own 
Republic,  is  the  proud  paragon  of  all  of  them,  and 
our  destiny  may  yet  be  to  unite  them  all,  or  most 
of  them,  into  one  common  brotherhood  of  nations. 
England  may  have  established  these  colonies  for 
a  selfish  purpose;  but  the  genius  of  the  colonists 
has  turned  their  creation  to  a  good  account.  They 
now  accomplish  a  mission  of  their  own,  and  have 
an  ever-eloquent  example  set  to  their  virtue,  in  the 
glorious  achievement  of  our  own  national  inde¬ 
pendence. 

If  it  has  not  been  followed  ere  this,  it  is  because 
England  relaxed  in  her  pretensions.  It  is  not  that 
these  colonies  have  not  yet  made  sufficient  prog¬ 
ress,  but  that  the  British  Government  has  re¬ 
ceded  from  its  absolute  supremacy  over  their 
domestic  and  foreign  affairs.  It  has  allowed  them, 
as  far  as  it  can  be  done  without  detriment  to  Eng¬ 
land,  to  manage  their  own  business;  but  it  can¬ 
not,  in  any  event,  allow  the  colonists  to  participate 
in  the  direction  of  public  affairs  of  the  mother 
country,  and,  without  this  boon,  all  the  colonies 
of  England,  great  and  small,  are  naught  but  sat- 
!  ellites,  controlled  in  their  motion  by  the  prepon¬ 
derating  influence  of  the  ruling  planet.  They 
may  regulate  matters  which  immediately  concern 
themselves,  but  they  have  no  influence,  and  no 
voice  in  the  British  Parliament,  which  governs 
England,  with  whose  destiny  their  own  is  still 
linked  as  with  a  chain  of  iron. 

The  British  colonists  being  not  represented  in 
the  British  Parliament,  have  no  voice  for  peace  or 
war,  and  no  share  in  any  measure  which  involves 
the  honor  and  welfare  of  the  mother  country,  and 
through  it,  their  own.  An  Irishman,  holding  a 
seat  in  the  British  Parliament  may,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  a  voice  in  the  management  of  the  af¬ 
fairs  of  the  world;  but  he  is  powerless  in  his  own 
country  ,  and  cannot  procure  for  it  even  that  species 
of  self-gbvernment,  which  is  enjoyed  by  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  Canada  or  Nova  Scotia,  simply  because 
they  are  further  removed  from  England.  The 
various  degrees  of  political  power,  conceded  by 
the  English  crown  to  its  subjects  in  Europe,  Amer¬ 
ica,  Asia,  Africa,  and  New  Holland,  aims  at  noth- 
ing'but  the  wealth,  power,  and  grandeur  of  Great 
Britain,  so  far  as  is  compatible  with  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  colonies;  and  though  the  policy  is 
wiser,  and  in  many  respects  more  humane, conse¬ 
quently  more  enduring,  than  that  pursued  by  Rome 
toward  the  people  subject  to  her  military  sway, 
yet  it  leads  to  the  same  result  and  struggles  for 
the  same  object — the  increased  wealth  and  power 
of  a  single  nation  at  the  expense  of  all  the  rest, 
and  the  endowment  of  a  few  ancestral  families  at 
home,  with  fortunes  and  honors  bought  with  the 
>  misery  and  domestic  slavery  of  the  musses. 

The  third  power  which  appeared  on  this  globe, 
marking  a  distinct  progress  and  filling  the  minds 
!  of  men,  from  its  infancy,  with  anxious  hopes 
and  expectations,  is  the  United  States  or 
America.  Born  at  an  advanced  stage  in  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  world,  and  conceived  of  strong  and 


healthy  parents,  our  confederacy  of  States  gave, 
even  at  its  birth,  assurance  of  its  future  greatness. 
Like  Hercules,  we  killed  two  serpents  in  our  cradle, 
placed  there  by  the  ignorance  of  the  world,  not 
by  the  malice  of  a  jealous  goddess.  We  destroyed 
the  worldly  power  of  the  established  church  by 
banishing  it  from  the  political  arena,  and  reaied 
in  its  place  the  temple  of  religious  tolerance;  and 
we  expelled  royalty  as  a  useless  and  expensive 
political  institution.  But  in  assuming  the  supreme 
direction  of  our  own  affairs,  we  committed  no  in¬ 
justice  to  others.  We  did  not  infringe  on  the 
rights  of  the  church  or  the  clergy,  in  religious 
matters;  and  in  suppressing  royalty,  applied 
merely  to  our  own  use,  what  was  already  our 
own. 

With  the  Declaration  of  Independence  of  the 
United  States,  a  new  great  historical  era  was  ush¬ 
ered  into  the  world,  not  only  for  individual  free¬ 
dom,  but  of  liberal  political  association ,  insuring 
and  guarantying  that  freedom.  It  is  the  peculiar 
mode  of  associating  men  for  the  exercise  of  power 
which  constitutes  American  freedom  and  signalizes 
its  superiority  over  all  other  Governments;  and  the 
distribution  of  power,  under  this  new  association, 
formed  by  our  ancestors  on  the  rubbish  of  the  old 
association  of  church  and  State,  marks  as  dis¬ 
tinct  a  progress  in  the  art  of  government  as  the 
Revolution  itself  manifested  in  men’s  ideas.  True 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Revolution,  that  all  Govern¬ 
ments  derive  their  just  power  from  the  consent  of 
the  governed,  the  framers  of  our  Constitution  had 
a  care  to  interest  all  equally  in  its  maintenance, 
and  to  let  all  share  proportionally  in  its  power. 
Not  only  were  the  different  Colonies  who  had 
achieved  their  independence,  united  into  a  repre¬ 
sentative  Confederacy,  but  individually  elevated 
into  sovereign  and  independent  States;  delegating 
to  the  Federal  Government  no  other  powers  than 
those  named  in  the  Constitution.  While  all  share 
in  the  power  of  the  Federal  Government  through 
their  representatives  in  Congress,  each  has  su¬ 
preme  control  over  the  administration  of  its  own 
affairs,  and  enjoys,  within  its  own  limits,  the 
privileges  and  immunities  of  sovereignty.  Herein 
consists  the  immeasurable  superiority  of  our  Con¬ 
federacy  of  States,  over  any  system  of  govern¬ 
ment  as  yet  recorded  in  history,  and  its  adaptation 
to  indefinite  expansion  without  loss  of  power. 
We  have,  in  less  than  a  century,  tripled  the  num¬ 
ber  of  States  composing  our  Federal  Union,  with¬ 
out  suffering  the  least  perturbation  in  our  political 
system;  and  our  population  has  increased  from 
three  to  twenty-five  millions,  without  complicat¬ 
ing  the  system,  or  meeting  with  the  least  difficulty 
in  the  application  of  the  principles  which  were 
laid  down  by  our  forefathers  with  so  much  vigor 
and  simplicity. 

Nor  is  this  all.  We  have,  during  that  brief 
period,  received  among  us  so  large  a  portion  of 
foreign  immigrants  that  their  number  exceeds 
alone  our  whole  population  during  the  revolu¬ 
tionary  war,  and  would  in  itself  suffice  to  add  a 
dozen  States  to  our  Confederacy.  The  monthly 
arrivals  of  immigrants  from  foreign  countries 
average  now  fifty  thousand  for  the  single  port 
of  New  York,  and  not  less  than  a  million  in  all 
the  ports  of  the  United  States,  per  annum.  All 
these  men,  and  women,  and  children,  or  most  of 
them,  come  here  with  the  crudest  political  and 
social  notions,  with  habits  and  customs  not  un- 


I 


I 


frequently  repugnant  to  our  own,  and  speaking 
languages  which ,  until  they  become  familiar  with 
our  idiom,  prevent  them  from  communicating 
freely  with  our  people.  Yet  in  a  few  years  we 
absorb  this  whole  vast  accretion  to  our  strength. 
The  immigrants  have  become  assimilated  with  us 
in  laborand  enterprise,  in  customs  and  manners,  in 
thoughtand  language,  and  in  political  ideas.  W  hat 
other  people  than  our  ov\  n,  what  other  Govern¬ 
ment  than  ours,  could  thus  invite  all  the  political, 
social,  and  religious  heretics  of  the  world  to  come 
and  sojourn  among  them,  without  fear  of  being 
ultimately  contaminated  and  overwhelmed?  This 
power  of  absorbing  and  assimilating  foreign  ele¬ 
ments  is  the  strongest  proof  of  our  historical 
mission;  or,  if  gentlemen  would  rather  have  it, 
our  “manifest  destiny;”  for  it  affords  the 
strongest  evidence  of  the  superior  energy  of  our 
people,  and  the  practical  advantages  of  our  polit¬ 
ical  institutions.  We  absorb  to  elevate;  we  rule 
by  bestowing  on  the  governed  a  share  of  political 
power.  Sir,  we  are  destined  to  expand  by  assim¬ 
ilation,  and  by  elevating  those  who  have  been 
misgoverned  and  oppressed  to  the  rank  of  free¬ 
men;  and  if  we  have  the  power  to  do  that  with 
millions  of  Europeans  who  flock  to  our  shores;  if 
our  example  is  constantly  working  revolutions 
and  changes  in  the  political  and  social  condition 
of  the  Old  World,  why  should  we  not  possess  the 
same  faculty  here,  when  less  powerful  States,  and 
more  misgoverned  people  are  eager  to  share  the 
blessings  of  our  institutions  and  laws?  Rome, 
and  the  people  of  Romanic  origin,  French,  Span¬ 
iards,  Portuguese,  have  never  colonized;  they 
merely  planted  or  transplanted  power;  the  people 
of  England  cultivated  and  improved,  but  held,  and 
still  hold,  their  colonies  in  subjection;  the  Ameri¬ 
cans  alone,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  elevate  and  regenerate  those  over  whom 
they  extend  their  sway.  We  conquer  that  we 
may  raise  the  conquered  to  an  equality  with  our¬ 
selves;  we  annex  to  assimilate  others  with  us  in 
a  higher  scale  of  humanity. 

These  faculties  and  purposes  of  ours  constitute 
our  patent  right  to  extend  our  power  and  influence 
over  the  constituent;  it  is  our  mission  to  instill 
new  life  into  the  feeble  and  misgoverned  people 
grown  on  the  dcbr is  of  Spanish  power  in  America, 
and  of  the  colonies  still  subjected  to  the  withering 
influence  of  her  rule;  but  we  must  not  expect  to 
fulfill  it  in  an  age,  or  in  a  century.  We  must  not 
be  tempted  to  absorb  faster  than  we  can  assim¬ 
ilate;  and  avoid  convulsions,  when  the  same  object 
may  be  attained  by  the  attractive  force  of  our  in¬ 
stitutions,  and  the  decomposing  process  now  going 
on  among  our  neighbors.  Time,  which  is  against 
them,  operates  in  our  favor;  ami  there  is  no  stride 
that  any  European  Power  can  take,  and  no  com¬ 
bination  that  any  of  those  Powers  can  form,  capa¬ 
ble  of  thwarting  our  destiny.  This  country  is 
destined  to  support  a  larger  population  than  all 
Europe — a  population  of  happy,  thinking,  self-re¬ 
lying  men;  not  a  mixture  of  beggars  and  princes. 
And  it  will,  despite  the  heterogeneous  elements 
which  contribute  to  it,  be  a  population  full  of  na¬ 
tional,  American  sentiments,  energetic,  free,  mar¬ 
tial;  whose  friendship  and  good  will  will  be  an 
object  of  solicitude  with  the  different  nations  of 
Europe.  The  present  war  in  Europe  will  excite 
a  bitterness  of  feeling,  and  beget  new  national 
jealousies,  which  will  continue  long  after  the  con- 


13 


elusion  of  peace,  and  be  an  effectual  bar  to  all  joint 
operations  against  our  growing  power.  England, 
France,  and  Spain  may  yet  sojourn  in  different 
parts  of  America.  We  are  at  home  in  it,  and 
shall  arrange  our  household  as  we  please. 

But  while  I  have  full  faith  in  the  mission  of  our  | 
country;  while  I  have  no  apprehension  of  any! 
successful  interference  of  any  European  Power,  or 
any  combination  of  them,  in  the  affairs  of  this 
continent;  while  1  believe,  if  I  may  indulge  in  the 
expression,  in  the  invincibility  of  the  United 
States,  1  yet  wish  that,  in  our  conduct  as  a  great 
nation,  we  avoid  everything  like  provocation  to 
the  weaker  Powers.  Let  our  mission  be  accom¬ 
plished  by  as  few  collisions  with  our  neighbors  as 
possible.  Let  the  world  be  convinced  of  our  mis¬ 
sion  as  we  are,  and  let  the  world  see  that  that 
mission  is  compatible  with  public  justice. 

There  is  nothing  so  disastrous  to  the  rising  for¬ 
tune  of  an  industrious  man  as  the  anticipation  of 
his  income.  It  begets  looseness  of  expenditure, 
and  a  reckless  speculation  to  meet  it,  which  inter¬ 
feres  with  the  profits  of  his  regular  business,  and 
frequently  involves  him  in  embarrassment  and 
ruin.  The  same  may  be  said  of  nations,  espe¬ 
cially  of  industrious  nations  like  our  own.  Sir, 
our  people  are  preeminently  a  business  people. 
We  live,  it  would  appear,  to  work,  to  amass 
wealth,  and  to  prepare  a  better  state  for  our  chil¬ 
dren  than  we  enjoy  ourselves.  This  we  call  prog¬ 
ress,  and  it  deserves  the  name.  We  are  the  first 
agricultural  and  planting  people  on  the  globe;  we 
are  the  rivals  of  England  in  commerce  and  navi¬ 
gation;  and  we  are  rapidly  becoming  a  great  man¬ 
ufacturing  people.  The  acquisition  of  territory 
is  valuable  to  us  only  as  far  as  it  affords  us  addi¬ 
tional  scope  for  enterprise  and  labor.  If  we  over¬ 
produce,  over-trade,  over-speculate,  the  undue 
expansion  is  rapidly  followed  by  a  contraction 
destructive  to  public  and  private  interests.  A 
gradual  expansion  and  expenditure,  predicated  on 
actual  income,  would  be  preferable  to  these  oscil¬ 
lations  in  our  march  of  progress. 

The  extension  of  our  territory,  while  easily 
accomplished  underour  political  and  social  system, 
may  yet  be  connected  with  serious  derangements  in 
our  financial,  commercial,  and  industrial  relations, 
especially  if  the  extension,  to  be  rendered  prac¬ 


ticable,  requires  the  application  of  force.  It  then 
behooves  us  to  calculate  the  cost  of  the  acquisi¬ 
tion,  and  its  prospective  value,  compared  with  the 
i  immediate  sacrifice  which  it  would  require  at  our 
hands.  We  may,  in  the  language  of  Franklin, 
“  pay  too  dear  for  the  whistle,”  and  we  may  not 
get  the  whistle  at  all,  when,  by  waiting  a  little 
while,  we  might  get  it  cheap  or  for  nothing.  Let 
us  not  be  too  impatient  to  realize  the  future,  or 
j  too  prodigal  of  the  means  of  shaping  it  to  our 
ends. 

We  have  a  great  example  before  us,  which  is 
not  without  its  lesson  to  the  United  States.  There 
is  the  colossal  power  of  Russia,  growing  and  ex¬ 
panding  like  ourselves,  increasing  in  population 
and  wealth,  and  advancing  in  civilization  and  com¬ 
merce.  She  has  expanded  westward  and  south¬ 
ward  as  we  have,  and  she  has,  in  this  respect, 
fulfilled  a  grand  mission.  Her  march  could  not 
well  be  arrested  till  she  had  reached  Constantino¬ 
ple,  and  established  her  power  in  the  Mediterra- 
1  nean.  All  this  was  foreseen  by  the  rest  of  the 
world,  yet  no  one  interposed.  Russia,  in  1829, 
advanced  within  fifty  miles  of  Constantinople 
without  meeting  with  a  solemn  protest  from  either 
England  or  France;  but  wisely  contented  herself 
with  the  peace  of  Adrianople.  She  saw  that  Con¬ 
stantinople  was  gravitating  toward  her,  and  that 
the  time  must  come  when  she  would  have  it 
almost  without  a  blow.  But  at  last  Russia  became 
impatient  to  administer,  in  the  language  of  her 
Emperor,  on  “  the  estate  of  a  dying  man,”  and 
what  is  the  consequence  ?  A  war,  the  end  of  which 
no  one  can  foretell,  and  which,  during  its  eventful 
progress,  may  destroy  her  commerce,  her  indus¬ 
try,  and  the  financial  resources  of  the  empire,  with¬ 
out  bringing  her  any  nearer  to  the  coveted  pos¬ 
session  of  Constantinople  than  she  was  before. 
She  may  recuperate,  renew  the  combat,  and  suc¬ 
ceed;  but,  in  the  mean  time,  she  will  have  retro¬ 
graded  in  wealth  and  commerce,  in  the  arts  of 
peace,  in  short,  in  everything  that  could  have 
made  her  acquisition  a  blessing  to  herself  and  the 
civilized  world.  By  mere  impatience  a  century- 
will  have  been  lost  to  the  progress  of  mankind, 
and  to  the  amelioration  of  our  race!  A  solemn 
warning  for  future  nations  to,  like  us,  reject  in 
folly  or  heed  in  wisdom. 


SI  v 


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